World Cup Fever!! Increasing temperature!!

As the World Cup fever is hitting the Bottomline, I thought that this was the apt post to speak on. As the Super8 matches are slowly drawing to an end, Lets take a recall on the famous wins and upsets that has taken place so far in this World Cup.We can start with the opening match of the tournament. Cos that will formally open the tournament.

Date: March 13 2007
WI vs Pak:

This was one of the important matches for both of the teams. WI being the host nation had additional Pressure to win this match. The match started with WI batting first. WI were off to the worst possible start losing both their openers for mediocre scores. The newcomers Ifthikar Anjum and Umar gul were doing a wonderful job in the absence of their speedsters Shoaib and Asif. WI tottering at 64-2. In walked Marlon Samuels who had been under deep pressure due to match fixing scandals. Played a wonderful and breezy innings of 63 of 70 balls. And built the WI innings with Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara. After that wicket fell in regular intervals but due to a cameo innings by Dwayne Smith, WI set a formidable target of 242 for the Pakistanis.

Now for the Pakistan innings... Atleast Windies were off to a poor start. But Pakistanis were off to a even more disastrous start. Losing wickets at regular intervals, with 3 youngsters, Powell, Bravo and Smith decimating the Pakistanis, they were all out for a paltry 187 with Inzi, Yousuf ans Malik offering some resistance. So, the Windies had justified their class by not saddening the spirits of the spectators. Man of the Match was Dwayne Smith for his allround performance.

There were 3 upsets in this World cup. 2 of them were in the league stage and 1 in Super8 stage.

Upsets:
Date:march 17 2007
IRE Vs Pak:

This proved to be one of the major upsets in this World Cup. Infact, taking the life of coach Bob Woolmer controversially. Pakistan batted first and were bowled out to a paltry 132. Clinical bowling display by the Irish medium pacers Smith and Rankins and spinners Botha and Mccallan crumpled Pakistan to 132...But the Pakistanis were not over yet.. Their bowlers Sami and Anjum struck early blows to reduce Ireland to 70-4. But Neill O Brein played a fine innings of 72 to guide Ireland to a surprise upset 3 wicket win over Pakistan. What a dream debut win for Ireland after tying against Zimbabwe. What a debut World Cup they were having!!!

Date:march 17 2007
Ind Vs Bang:

This was one of the matches where everyone expected India to do a cake walk over the "MINNOWS" Bangladesh. India won the toss and elected to bat first. An obvious decision it was!!! India had the best batting attack in the World. It had batsmen of high calibre to boast of with the likes of Sourav, Sachin and Rahul. But what happened to this powerful batting side is history... The young Mashrafe Mortaza ripped thro the top order removing Uthappa and the inconsistent Sehwag. Then the spinners took on the job from him.. Razzak, Rafique and Saqibul ripped the heart of the Indian batting and mortaza came back to clean up the tail.. No batsmen except Sourav and Yuvraj could handla the red hot Bangladeshi tigers!!! And India were bowled out for 192. But much was expected from the Indian bowlers.Though Sehwag and Patel snared 2 wickets each, it was curtains for the Indian team.. Tamim, Saqib and Rahim hit clinical half centuries to send Bangladesh home and achieve an unexpected win against the subcontinent rivals. The coincidental fact was that the subcontinent rivals India and Pakistan were upset on the same day.

Srilanka, Bangladesh, Australia, South Africa, England, New Zealand, West Indies and Ireland moved on to the Super 8..

Super8:
Date: April 7th 2007
Rsa Vs Bang

The tigers striked back!!! This time it was the Top ranked team in the Wrold, South Africa which was the prey.. Putting in to bat, Bangladesh posted a formidable target of 252 to the Proteas..Tamim and Bashar played second fiddle to a brilliant young man..
His name is Ashraful.. Facing bowlers of the likes of Polly, Ntini and Nel, Ashraful played a belligerent innings of 87 studded with some purely unorthodox strokes... Nel took 5 wickets.. As the South african innings started, the bangladesh bowlers ran haywire over the South african batsmen.. Nobody showed any resistance to the spin and pace combo of the tigers.. So, eventually, the Proteas were tamed by the Tigers by being bowled out for a meagre 184. Gibbs played a good innings carrying an injury but in vain.. Ashraful was named Man of the Match..

These were by far the upsets in this World Cup 2007.. Will speak about the interesting and nail biting matches in the next post.. Till then.......

Yours cricketically,
Vijay